Best Rear Delt Exercises to Build Strong Shoulders

If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and noticed your shoulders look a little uneven — the front and side delts popping while the back stays flat — you’re not alone. The rear deltoids are the most commonly skipped head of the shoulder, and most people never give them focused attention until something starts feeling off. This guide walks through the exercises fitness coaches and trainers recommend most, from dumbbell flyes to cable face pulls, with step-by-step cues that make the muscle actually fire.

Exercises listed by Healthline: 6 · Exercises listed by Gymshark: 6 · Exercises listed by Anytime Fitness: 8 · Common equipment types: Dumbbell, cable, machine

What is the best exercise for rear delts?

Fitness experts and trainers consistently highlight three movements when ranking the best rear delt exercises: the rear delt fly, face pulls, and bent-over reverse flys. Each targets the posterior deltoid from a different angle, making them complementary rather than interchangeable.

• Rear delt fly isolates through horizontal abduction
• Face pulls add rotator cuff engagement
• Bent-over reverse flys remove momentum from the equation

The implication: no single exercise covers all bases, which is why programming experts recommend cycling through all three movement patterns over time.

Rear Delt Fly

The rear delt fly isolates the posterior deltoid by moving the arm through a horizontal abduction pattern. According to Set for Set fitness publication (home gym training specialist), the key is focusing on contracting the muscle and squeezing the shoulder blades together throughout the movement.

To perform a dumbbell reverse fly: stand tall with dumbbells at your sides, hinge your hips back, and bend your knees to achieve roughly a 45-degree torso angle. Lift the dumbbells laterally with a slight elbow bend until your hands reach shoulder height, then lower under control. The movement can also be adapted as a machine variation using the chest fly machine by facing the weight stack instead of away from it.

Face Pulls

Face pulls target rear deltoids, traps, rhomboids, and rotator cuff muscles simultaneously, according to MIKOLO home gym equipment specialist. The exercise is performed by attaching a tricep rope extension to a high pulley, standing facing the machine with feet shoulder-width apart, and pulling the rope toward your face while keeping elbows up and flared back.

Bent-Over Reverse Flys

This movement emphasizes the rear deltoid through a bent-over posture that removes momentum from the equation. Garage Gym Reviews home gym authority notes that a 2015 study in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness found the reverse pec deck recruits posterior deltoids to a greater extent compared to seated rows and lat pulldowns — a finding that applies broadly to bent-over reverse fly variations as well.

How do I target my rear delts?

Targeting your rear delts effectively comes down to choosing the right tool and controlling the path of resistance. The posterior deltoid is a relatively small muscle that responds best to isolation work where larger muscles like the lats and traps can’t take over.

Dumbbell exercises

• Side-lying rear delt raise: Lie on your side on a bench, hold a dumbbell with an overhand grip, arm bent 90 degrees at the elbow. Raise the arm by contracting the rear delt until the elbow points toward the ceiling.
• Rear lateral raise with head support: Set up an incline bench, grab dumbbells with a neutral grip, hinge at the hips and place your forehead on the bench. Lift weights laterally by contracting rear delts for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps.
• Bent-over rear delt raise: Stand with feet hip-width apart holding dumbbells, hinge at the hips until your torso is nearly parallel with the floor. Keep a neutral spine and slightly bent elbows, then engage rear delts to raise weights to shoulder height.

Cable exercises

Cable exercises provide constant tension throughout the range of motion, which Bells of Steel strength equipment manufacturer describes as making the standing cable rear delt fly one of the most effective isolation movements for rear delts with minimal trap involvement.

• Standing cable rear delt fly: Keep arms slightly bent and chest up, pull cables apart until arms are parallel to the floor while squeezing rear delts, then slowly return to start.
• Reverse grip cable row: Switch to a palms-up grip to shift emphasis from lats and biceps toward rear delts and lower traps.
• Single-arm bent-over cable rear delt fly: Allows working each rear delt individually, increasing range of motion and addressing side-to-side imbalances.

Machine exercises

Pec deck machines and reverse fly machines offer controlled movement patterns that are particularly useful for beginners or when focusing purely on mind-muscle connection without balancing a free weight.

• Reverse Pec Deck: Strong Home Gym equipment reviewer notes the Life Fitness Axiom Series ranks as the overall best pec deck machine for rear deltoid isolation.
• Chest-Supported Reverse Fly: Using a chest-supported position on an incline bench removes hip hinge mechanics, putting pure tension on the rear delts.
• All-in-one home gym machines: The Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE offers over 70 exercises with 210 pounds of base resistance, upgradeable to 410 pounds, making it a versatile option for rear delt training at home.

Are rear deltoids hard to grow?

Yes — and there’s a structural reason. The posterior deltoid sits behind the shoulder joint, meaning it’s in a mechanically disadvantaged position for most pulling movements. Larger muscles like the latissimus dorsi and middle trapezius tend to dominate whenever you row or pull, making it genuinely difficult to isolate the rear delt without careful technique.

Reasons for difficulty

Endomondo fitness tracking platform notes that cable rear delt exercises are typically structured at the end of a workout after larger muscle groups are already fatigued — which is exactly backwards if you’re trying to grow the rear delts specifically.

• Mid-back and traps dominate rows, pulling focus away from rear delts
• Most people perform more pressing than pulling, creating front-back imbalance
• Rear delts are relatively small compared to prime movers like lats and pecs
• Constant tension is harder to maintain without cable or machine assistance

The pattern: the rear delt’s anatomy makes it a secondary mover in virtually every compound pull, which is why isolation work is non-negotiable for growth.

Growth tips

To actually grow rear delts, you need to prioritize them early in the workout when you’re fresh, use exercises that remove compensation from larger muscles, and train them with sufficient volume. A sample cable rear delt training protocol from Endomondo includes: Seated Wide-Grip Cable Row (4 × 8), Standing Cable Rear Delt Fly (3 × 15), Cable Face Pull (3 × 15), and Cable Crossover Reverse Fly (3 × 15).

Why is rear delt so hard?

The rear delt’s location at the back of the shoulder means it’s designed for stabilization more than prime movement. When you perform pulling exercises, your traps and rhomboids — which are larger and more neurologically efficient — automatically take over the load before your rear delts reach their working capacity.

Common mistakes

• Using too much weight: Heavier loads invite momentum and trap compensation, turning rear delt isolation into a trap exercise.
• Training rear delts last: By the time you’ve finished rows, pulldowns, and presses, your rear delts are already exhausted. Moving them earlier in the session changes everything.
• Ignoring the mind-muscle connection: Because the rear delt is neurologically quiet in compound movements, you need to consciously focus on squeezing the shoulder blades together during isolation work.

Why it’s neglected

The rear delts aren’t visible in most gym mirrors, so they don’t get the aesthetic attention that front and side delts receive. They’re also harder to feel working, which means lifters don’t develop the same neuromuscular connection. Finally, pushing movements (bench press, overhead press, push-ups) are far more popular than pulling movements, leaving rear delts chronically underdeveloped in most training programs.

How to grow rear delts fast?

Fast is relative in muscle building, but you can optimize rear delt growth by prioritizing isolation work, training with sufficient volume, and using progressive overload even on small movements. The posterior deltoid responds to the same hypertrophy principles as any other muscle — mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and consistent progressive overload.

At home options

Home workouts don’t have to skip rear delts. With just a pair of dumbbells, you can perform effective rear delt work using exercises like bent-over raises, side-lying raises, and inverted rows. Set for Set home gym training resource recommends 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps for exercises like the dumbbell rear lateral raise with head support and bent-over dumbbell rear delt raise.

No equipment variations

Even without weights, you can challenge rear delts through bodyweight movements:

• Inverted rows: Hanging from a bar with body horizontal, row your chest to the bar while squeezing shoulder blades together.
• Prone angels: Lie face-down with arms extended overhead, sweep arms in arcs while keeping shoulders off the ground.
• Band pull-aparts: Hold a resistance band with both hands, pull it apart until arms are parallel to the floor, focusing on rear delt contraction.

What this means: rear delt training doesn’t require a fully equipped gym — consistency matters more than access to specialty machines.

What experts say

“Reverse fly movements are better than row machines for targeting the rear delts specifically, because rows inherently involve the lats and traps which can take over the contraction.”

— Athlean-X evidence-based strength training platform

“The rear deltoid is a hard-to-target muscle that needs specific exercises and focused attention. It won’t grow from compound pulling alone — you have to isolate it directly.”

— Peloton digital fitness platform